Otto Can’t Stop Going After Cozies

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Otto Penzler just can’t help himself. He’ll use any excuse at all to attack "cozies." He even found a way to use the launch of the International Thriller Writers organization, of which I am a proud member,  as a way to take yet another swipe at the genre and its authors in a New York Sun article:

We all have our prejudices (yes, you too). I admit that if I were on the Best
Novel committee, books with cutesy pun titles would be eliminated before I read
the first page. They may be fun, they may have their charm, but they are not
serious literature and don’t deserve an Edgar. Which is why someone had the
bright idea to create Malice Domestic, a conference devoted to fiction so
lightweight that an anvil on top of it is the only way to prevent it from
floating off to the great library in the sky. Other readers might eliminate
espionage novels, feeling they are not "mysteries," or books with dirty words
and nasty sex scenes because they think these things have no place in a nice
mystery.

A new organization has just started up as a counterweight to the literarily
negligible works honored at Malice Domestic. David Morrell and Gayle Lynds, two
stars of the thriller world, have helped create International Thriller Writers
Inc.

The formation of the ITW had nothing to do with the existence of Malice Domestic, or displeasure with cozies, or a lack of respect for their authors, many of whom I count as close friends. The ITW was created to:

…celebrate the thriller, to enhance the prestige and raise the profile of thrillers, to award prizes to outstanding  thriller novels and authors, and to create opportunities for collegiality within  the thriller community.

Where does it say anything about cozies or Malice Domestic? No where. This is a case of Otto Penzler making up inflammatory bullshit to serve his own prejudices. Otto has his prejudices, that much is clear. Fine. But to smear ITW and its members with them is another matter. The ITW currently has Otto’s column posted on their website, which implies that we endorse his idiotic views that cozies, and those who write them, aren’t worthy of recognition or respect. I hope the ITW leadership will remove his column from the website.

(Thanks to Toni Kelner for the heads-up)

UPDATE 5-17-05 –  I want to applaud my colleagues in the ITW for doing the right thing:  The leadership has left Otto’s column up on their website, but they’ve deleted the inflamatory paragraphs.

The comments were not necessary for the purpose of sharing
information about us that has appeared in the press, so they were
edited out. The posting of the column on the site in the rather obscure press
clippings section was in no way intended to endorse Penzler’s views.

Chair, ITW Web Committee

Hey-o Kayo

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In my travels up in San Francisco, I made sure to pay a visit to Kayo Books, a treasure trove of noir classics and not-so-classics, where I  once again went on a buying binge, stocking up on more Harry Whittington, Marvin Albert, and Wade Miller paperbacks. They also have a huge stock of sleazy sex books and TV tie-ins.  If you’re in SF, and you’re a book lover, you’ve got to stop by.

I also browsed at Stacy’s on Market Street (where I got a signed copy of Kevin Guilfoile’s CAST OF SHADOWS), A Clean Well Light Place For Books on Van Ness (where I got a signed first edition of Isabel Allende’s new ZORRO and ordered a signed copy of Martha O’Connor’s BITCH POSSE) and Barnes & Noble at Fisherman’s Wharf (where I found a signed copy of Elizabeth George’s WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS and Jodi Picoult’s VANISHING ACTS).

Lee on The Road

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Mystery Writing is the focus of this year’s "Writers Journey Conference," June 3-4 at  the Sisters of Assisi Retreat House in San Fernando, California. The event is presented  by the San Fernando Branch of the California Writers Club.  I’ll be speaking along with Jacqueline Winspear, Penny Warner, DP Lyle, and retired cop Lee Lofland. For more information, click here.  

Meet The Saint

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006058688501_sclzzzzzzz_On Saturday, May 21st, at 1 pm my friend Ian Ogilvy will be visiting the Mystery Book Store in Westwood to sign his children’sbook  MEASLE AND THE DRAGODON, his sequel to the delightful MEASLE AND THE WRATHMONK (one of my daughter’s favorite books).  Ian has made a name for himself lately as a novelist in the UK for writing clever novels for adults and children, but he is probably best known as the actor who played Simon Templar in the series RETURN OF THE SAINT(he also guest-starred in a couple very funny DIAGNOSIS MURDER episodes, including the one where Regis gunned down Kathy Lee).  So if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and say hi… and get a book signed.

SF Chronicle Loves Wasserman

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The San Francisco Chronicle gave Steve Wasserman, the out-going editor of the LA Times Book Review, a nice going-away present this morning: a front-page, Datebook section story ("Editor Who Put West Coast on Literary Map Hangs up his Spurs") along with a commentary by Chronicle Book Critic David Kipen.
Obviously, they are a lot more fond of Wasserman in SF than we are down here in LA.  The folks at LAObserved have an interesting theory:

It was a no-brainer that Kipen would comment on the end of the Wasserman era
(and a surprise that I’m mentioned), but why the newsfeature? I don’t know, but
perhaps Chronicle top editor Narda Zacchino played a role. She started the
Festival of Books while a senior Times editor, and may even have hired Wasserman
at the review, I don’t remember for certain. Wasserman’s first job at the Times
was as the assistant to her husband, Robert Scheer (then a staff writer, now a
non-staff columnist.)

The Chronicle credits Wasserman with “turning the Sunday section into must reading for book lovers north and south, east and west.” They must have received a different edition up there than we did down here. Though Mike Davis, author of the fabulous CITY OF QUARTZ (among others), agrees with them:

"Wasserman may not be my cup of tea, but, objectively, he turned a book
section that most people threw out into undoubtedly the best book review section of any paper in the country. I’m often infuriated by specific reviews, but it is the most exciting book review section in the country.

They only pay passing attention to his detractors, with quotes from my brother Tod and former LATBR editor Digby Diehl.

"Steve Wasserman tried to impress his literary taste on the city of Los Angeles," author and blogger Tod Goldberg said. "But I don’t think it meshed with what people in L.A. were actually reading. L.A. is a company town and that company is Hollywood. I don’t think the review needs to be focused only on Jackie Collins and popular literature, but it needs to find a voice that is both popular and challenging."

The L.A. Times Book Review was launched as a stand-alone section in 1975 under editor Digby Diehl, whose mentor was the paper’s longtime book critic, Robert Kirsch. Though he applauds the vigor of the book festival, Diehl is a critic of some aspects of the Review.

"I’m sure there are many authors who are very grateful to Steve for the kind of books he reviewed, for his emphasis on very serious subjects and his wonderful treatment of a lot of books that wouldn’t get much attention outside of academic reviews," Diehl says. "I just don’t think that’s a good use of space in a Sunday newspaper."

Diehl’s tenure coincided with the birth of chain bookstores, which boosted ad sales for the book review. ("I made well over a million dollars a year for the L.A. Times," he notes.) Today, newspaper advertising from publishers and bookstores has all but disappeared.

The plummeting ad dollars the LATBR generated should speak volumes about how well read the section really is. They may be reading it north and south, east and west, but they aren’t reading it in L.A.

To be fair, though, Wasserman deserves our city’s undying gratitude and respect for creating the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which has truly changed the face of the Southern California Lit Scene. His Book Review may not have been memorable, but the Book Festival is his real legacy…and I, for one, hope it endures for a very long time.

The Night Stalker

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ABC has announced their fall schedule and one of the shows they picked up is Frank Spotnitz’s new version of THE NIGHT STALKER.  The original starred Darren McGavin as a down-on-his-luck wire service  reporter who inevitably stumbled on stories involving the supernatural. It was a very funny series with its share of scares. Think ROCKFORD FILES with ghosts.  But Spotnitz is seemingly going in a much, much darker direction…at least according to this report from TVTracker.

Network: ABC
Genre: Drama
Title: NIGHT STALKER
Studio: Touchstone
Television
Commitment: Series Pick Up (13 Episodes)
Auspices: Frank
Spotnitz (EP, W-Pilot), Daniel Sackheim (D-Pilot, EP N/W)
Cast: Eric
Jungmann, Cotter Smith, Stuart Townsend, Gabrielle Union
Logline: There are things in the dark, things adults deny but children are right to fear… When a pregnant woman is snatched from her home, the shocked citizens of L.A. believe it’s an act of domestic violence. But crime reporter Carl Kolchak
suspects that the truth is far more complicated. That’s because 18 months ago, Kolchak’s wife was killed in a bizarre fashion and he has been the FBI’s #1 suspect ever since. Kolchak’s determination to find out the truth behind his wife’s mysterious murder has led him to investigate other crimes that seem to have some kind of supernatural component. But he’s trying to piece together a puzzle that keeps changing its shape. Who or what is committing these crimes? How are they all related? And why do some victims end up with a strange red mark on their hands in the shape of a snake? With sidekick Perri Reed, a sexy if skeptical fellow reporter in tow, Kolchak will go to any lengths to answer these questions. But when he does discover the truth – will anyone believe him?

This, by the way, is one of two new series on ABC (the other is John Wells THE EVIDENCE) involving heroes haunted by the unsolved murders of their wives.  This is a popular theme on series television these days  (MONK is another example that comes to mind).

Location Scouting

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It’s getting "down to the wire" on the deadline for my first MONK novel, MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIRE HOUSE, which is due June 1. I’m not going to have a problem delivering the book on time, though I hope I never have to write a book in eight weeks again. (I’ve got 3 1/2 months to write my second MONK novel)

I’m up in San Francisco today, where MONK  is set, though it has been shot in Toronto and, for the last season or two, in Santa Clarita, California.  I figured it was time I got to know the city a little
better. Even though I am from the Bay Area (born in Oakland, raised in Walnut Creek), I am not as familiar with SF as I’d
like to be…or need to be… if I am going to create any sense of place in these
MONK books. 

I haven’t had to make a conscious effort to get to know a city for a book since THE WALK, my novel about a guy who walks across L.A. after the Big One hits.  The  DIAGNOSIS MURDER books take place, for the most part, in L.A. Since I live in L.A. , describing the city and neighborhoods comes easily, since I know the city well. Even so, I’ve also got a bunch of L.A. architecture and history books and travel guides to use for research when necesary…and occasionally have to drive some where and take some pictures to add more texture to the writing.

Although I’ve been back to SF maybe thirty times in the last, say, ten years, the problem is I  always go to the same parts of the city every time  (mostly the tourist spots at that). I’m making a big effort over the next two days to visit neighborhoods I haven’t been to in years or am unfamiliar with…and to take lots of pictures.  In doing so, I’m discovering a whole new San Francisco. I’m also picking up lots of books on SF while I’m here for research and to refresh my memory.

It’s fun, though I’m painfully aware that hours spent on the streets  are hours not spent at the laptop writing…

Website as Pitching Tool

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A number of people have alerted me to this news: a guy created a website to pitch his movie… and it worked. LAObserved has the story.

Screenwriter Eric Heisserer set up a
website called The Dionaea House
last year and posted a series of correspondence between characters in his horror
screenplay. After all, if the Internet is there, why not exploit it to create
some buzz? The site got a ton of hits. Tomorrow’s Hollywood
Reporter says the website helped "build the mythology" of the project — and
Warner Bros. Pictures picked it up for David Heyman to produce at Heyday Films.

Round Table Pitching

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Today, I received this email:

Currently, I am writing a mystery novel – my first – and pitched to an executive editor from a film company at a conference late in April. He asked me to formalize the pitch and submit. Being new to the concept, I am at sea.

The idea I pitched had to do with my specific mystery, but for a tv series or film, shouldn’t the pitch be less specific? I have written four sentences that sum up the idea for a series/movie.

I also have written a cover letter to re-introduce myself to the editor. I have the submission packet from the company with standard submission forms to complete, but is there anything else I should
include?

Here’s how I replied: First, some questions for you. What is an executive editor at a film company? I have been in this business a long time and I have never heard of such
a position. If I may ask, what company are we talking about here? Are they reputable? Have they produced any TV shows or movies you’ve actually heard of?

Secondly, most pitches are done verbally in Hollywood, so submitting the pitch on paper seems odd. Even so, when I do a pitch, I usually leave behind a punchy one-or-two page synopsis  — think of it as book-jacket copy meant to entice the reader into buying the book.

Finally, are you pitching a TV series or a movie? They are two very, very different things and require very, very different kinds of pitches. Since I haven’t seen this company’s submission forms, and have no idea what they ask from you, so I don’t know if filling them out is enough.

This sounds to me like one of those round-table-pitching conferences where aspiring writers have five minutes to pitch their stuff to some development exec. I’ve never done one of those things, so I really have no idea how it works.